The race started 14 minutes late because of protesters attempting to cut through the fences to get onto the course and a handful who super-glued themselves to the brush of a fence. Several arrests. One horse died after the race, having fallen at fence 1.
Oh wow. Superglue? Weird.
That’s terrible about the horse dying. That’s a much better record than last year, though.
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Just after the 6-minute mark in this video there’s a bit of chat about the Grand National with someone who’s ridden it –
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Believe me, I know about both. I grew up working with both steeplechasers and in flat racing.
Everything about steeplechasing is more horse friendly and “better” until you have one in their absolute prime break their neck.
My 3 primary horse sports are 1) racing 2) eventing 3) jump racing. And I will stand by the statement I made when it comes to all 3 of them: I hate the carnage. That doesn’t stop me from loving them and remaining involved.
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Please, go spew your bigotry elsewhere.
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AGreed. The effort to eliminate PMU farms in Canada led to a gain for China. Where the activists can now do NO GOOD at all to improve the animals conditions.
Same for horse slaughter. Exporting it outside the USA just makes a worse deal for the animals.
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Wow, that is so sad. I can see horses getting amped up more and more. Surrounded by other excited horses and being held back……poor boy. Sounds like a very talented jumper was lost.
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If they could see he was getting too amped up to be safe, it was their responsibility to pull him. We’ve all had shows where our horses were clearly not into it that day, and we scratch. Just because there’s more money at stake in this race, why should the concern for the horse be any different?
And what about the other two horses that also died at Aintree this week? What’s the excuse there?
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I saw it, not by choice, on Twitter and it’s awful. The one (Dark Raven, I think ) that fell the day before is even worse, tried to get up and back legs…not working. At least Hill Sixteen probably lost all feeling immediately from landing on his head and being very clearly instantly paralyzed. There’s no excuse for any of this, animals shouldn’t die for sport. I can’t even fathom the type of person who can watch this year after year knowing you’ll be watching at least one animal die horribly. Just based on the yearly average for Aintree, it’s a foregone conclusion now, one of those horses isn’t coming home. The absolute crush of horses at each massive fence and the injuries they’re incurring…it’s really hard to stomach. People do a lot of horrible things but getting dressed up and drunk to watch animals die has to be pretty close to the top of the list (and there’s a long list of animal “sports” that are cruel and need to end…but this one being so celebrated is just depressing). I’ve never made a comment on forums despite lurking for years. I don’t agree with protestors blocking the field, at all. But they didnt kill any of the 3 horses that died at Aintree this weekend, the “sport” did.
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From what I know, you cannot scratch a horse without a vet agreeing to it, or the stewards (for dangerous behaviour) after a certain time.
Sure you can.
Get off and don’t run.
No one had a knife to the throats of anyone out there.
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I’m sorry, I’m just not into it. Any sport that unnecessarily risks the life and limb of the animals that trust us to make good choices for them is a “no” in my book.
This includes the uppermost levels of eventing, the Tevis, etc. It’s not just this sport. But there is nothing about this that says “horsemanship.” A truly freak accident is one thing - expecting at least one horse to die at an event? Disgusting.
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I’ve never been a supporter of jump racing, never will.
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You can be fined / suspended; it is considered a form of bad faith race sabotage. Like a jock not making any effort to ride a real race.
Sure you can physically pull the horse; but you may find you never run a horse afterwards.
All of that sounds better than killing one.
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You quit your job on your morals, then tell someone else to quit their entire livelihood. Not all trainers are rich, have wealthy patrons, or another avenue of work to fall back on on a moments notice.
I’m sure this trainer is a bastard who just chucked a no hoper in the Grand National to “do it in” hrr hrr hrr.
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I never said any of that, you’re projecting.
In today’s climate, if a trainer pulls a horse who is visibly out of his mind due to unusual circumstances and says he did it for safety reasons, no one would even blink.
Instead, the horse was ran anyways, and he’s blaming the unusual circumstances for his inability to step in and make the right call for the horse. I don’t care if he uses this to put food on the table - the horse didn’t sign up for this and you have to be able to make the right call for the animal no matter what.
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Also, perhaps him finishing LAST at the race prior to this one after never placing so poorly ever in his career should have been a “heads up, somethings not right” for the owner/trainer. Nope, race him anyways!
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I understand where you’re coming from. I think the comments made were out of exasperation. We’ve all had rides that started bad but the horse turned around. These aren’t baby TBs running, these horses are 7-11 or do, from looking at their stats. These are horses on their prime with enough experience to buckle down and do their job. The jockey probably thought the horse would be better once he started going.
That accident was freakish. It looked like a flip and then paralysis. I don’t know if anything could’ve prevented that. Maybe if the riders didn’t bunch up? Maybe if the jumps had more visibility on the far side (not hedges)? I don’t know. I’m not experienced enough in jumping.
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